Overprotection
by Fred Weasley's Forever
Summary: Seamus Finnigan's little sister, Koti, has just started her first year at Hogwarts and every boy at the school has taken an interest in her. But, how will she respond to the attention of someone else? Sepcifically a certain red-headed Weasley twin.
1. Koti's Entrance

FRED'S POV:

I sat in the Great Hall, bored as usual, and ran a hand through my hair.

"Its about time you showed up." I said irritably to my twin, George, who had just sat down next to me.

Something about today (the first day of our 5th year at Hogwarts) had me in a bad mood.

The Great Hall was already filled up with students waiting to see all of the new first years. On the other side of George, I could hear Seamus Finnigan yapping about how proud he and his parents were that his sister was going to be coming to Hogwarts this year. All of the excited chatter that filled the hall was making my head hurt.

I put my head down on my arm and closed my eyes, trying to block out the sounds of happy people shouting at each other. I must have fell asleep for a few minutes because when I lifted my head again, the sortings had already started.

"That's my sister!" Seamus whispered quite loudly to those surrounding.

No one could see where he was pointing until McGonagall called out, "Koti Finnigan."

A short girl with hair so dark brown it was almost black stepped out of the crowd and up to the stool. She turned to be seated and every man in the Great Hall stopped breathing. She had pale-ish skin, but it was a good thing because the freckles spread across her face wouldn't have worked if she had been tan. She had hazel-colored eyes that changed with the light. She was thin and had full lips and smooth-looking skin. She took a seat on the stool and the hat was placed on her head.

"I sure hope she's in Gryffindor." I heard someone whisper.

"Hey, man, that's my sister!" Seamus said, seeing the look in his eye.

The hat took a moment to think before announcing, "Gryffindor!"

The whole table, including myself, cheered louder than when Harry had been placed in Gryffindor. Only Seamus looked disappointed. But it wasn't because his little sister was in Gryffindor; it was because every teenage boy in the Hall was ogling her. All the guys in every other house looked down at their feet, sullen.

She made her way to the table and sat beside a guy I thought was in his 3rd year or so. He immediately started talking to her, of course.

I looked at Seamus who was glowering at the guy and trying to catch Koti's eye. Finally she looked up at him. He motioned for her to come to him.

She shrugged and told the guy she had to go. Then she walked over to Seamus.

Being this close to her was weird. So far I had thought of her as unreachable. Now here she was standing next Seamus who was only a person down from me.

"You can sit here with me, Koti." Seamus said, pushing George into me.

She sat, looking at the table, bored.

George held out his hand and stuttered, "I-I'm George W-Weasley."

Stupid George being right next to her.

She shook his hand and said, in the same accent as Seamus, "Koti Finnigan."

I held my hand out around George. "I'm Fred Weasley, his better looking twin."

She shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye, saying, "Hi." softly and smiling.

I looked down to the table, blushing and picked at the food on my plate.

All I heard for the rest of the night was all of the other guys flirting and talking to Koti.

I didn't bother, knowing that I was too old for her and that Irishmen had short tempers. George didn't seem to understand this and flirted with her anyway.

As the night wore on, my headache grew.

KOTI'S POV:

It was nice getting attention and all, but I just didn't have it in me to talk tp people anymore. My throat was starting to hurt and so were my cheekbones.

I was thankful when it was time to go to the common rooms for the night. I'm sure Seamus was, too.

Everyone walked to the door of the Great Hall and went opposite ways.

A group of guys I had been talking to winked or waved or silly goodbye gestures and said, "Goodnight Koti!"

I waved and turned, ready for sleep. A few girls in my year glared at me, but my best friend Michelle stepped up beside me and glared right back at them until they turned around.

"Thanks," I whispered to her as a prefect began giving instructions and leading us to the common room and dormitories.

"All the guys around here really seem to like you." she commented, winking and smiling good-naturedly.

"Yeah… But, unfortunately that's making me pretty unpopular with the girls."

Michelle frowned.

When the prefect finally left, Michelle and I went up to bed, not ready for any more drama with the other jealous girls who were currently exchanging rumors and giggling in the common room.

It took a while for me to fall asleep in the unfamiliar bed, but eventually I dank into a dreamless sleep.


	2. Spit Shine

FRED'S POV:

Breakfast was almost normal, except for the fact that every guy in the school was fawning all over Koti. Again.

She didn't look like she was even really enjoying the attention that much. Like it was boring. That seemed to be the only expression she ever had. I only ever saw her bored when she wasn't offering up fake smiles to her admirers. They were too blinded by her beauty to see the smiles' fakeness, though.

A guy that was sitting next to her was talking animatedly and gesturing to his bag beneath the bench.

She nodded and smiled enthusiastically. Another fake. When he turned and searched his bag for whatever it was he was going to show her, she frowned and was back to being bored. But this time it was more than bored. It was almost sad.

I frowned, too, unhappy because she was unhappy.

She probably felt me watching her from down the table because she looked up at me then. She gave me a half-smile and waved, mouthing, "Hi."

I smiled and tilted my head down, looking up at her from under my short hair. "You okay?" I mouthed.

She looked shocked, like she was surprised that I had been able to see through her façade. Before she could respond, the guy brought out something in his hand and her attention was required once more.

I gathered my things and stood from the table, walking out. As I turned the corner outside the door, I saw her frowning after me out of the corner of my eye.

Classes were just as boring as usual and since it was the first day of school, we didn't have to do any work. Lucky me, I had tons of free time to think and make my already pounding headache worse.

In Snape's class I was assigned detention for trying to sleep in class (even though we weren't doing anything else). It was only because I was in Gryffindor, but I had nothing better to do besides think, so I didn't even argue that cleaning cauldrons was a waste of my time.

When all of my classes were over, I made my way back to Snape's classroom and pulled all of the cauldrons out. Snape was nowhere to be seen (thank all that is holy). I wasn't sure I could deal with him any more than absolutely necessary.

I heard a bunch of footsteps out in the hall. I went to the door and cautiously put my ear to it, listening for whoever it was. No student would be caught dead down here with classes out.

I heard a vaguely familiar voice say, "Yeah, I'll be right there!"

The footsteps got louder as they approached the door. Koti.

I ran back to the cauldrons and got to scrubbing, trying to seem natural.

The door opened and she slid in, quickly closing the door behind her. She slowly turned with her eyes closed and sighed.

"Something the matter?" I asked, the washcloth still in my hand.

She opened her eyes wide, startled. I waved. "Sorry, I didn't know anyone was in-"

"You running from someone?" I interrupted.

She opened her mouth and started to shake her head like she was going to say no, then seemed to decide against it. She nodded.

"Ah… Tired of your stalkers already?" I teased.

"Yes." she said, no trace of joking. "They never leave me alone. I cant believe most girls actually _want_ this. All the attention is killing me and I don't know how to break it to them." She was getting more and more emotional. She smiled apologetically after a moment of silence.

"You're too nice." I commented, scrubbing some unidentifiable muck out of the bottom of a cauldron.

"I'm what now?" Apparently this had made her angry. I heard her use the same angry Irish tone Seamus always used when he was riled up.

"Nice. You cant tell them because you're afraid of hurting someone. But if you ever want to get left alone, you're going to have to break some hearts, princess." I said, not looking at her and pushing the cloth into the cauldron over and over, trying to get that green goop out. 'How are these already dirty? it's the first day of school!' I thought.

I looked up, expecting her to be mad still, but she seemed to be contemplating my suggestion. "Maybe you're right," she admitted, sounding defeated.

"You gave up awfully easy. Not very much like your brother, are you?" I noted.

She cocked a brow.

"Seamus never gives up a fight." I began scrubbing another cauldron.

"I don't either. But Seamus is about as stubborn as a mule. He's always looking for something to fight about. I swear, he would argue with a stop sign." She rolled her eyes and walked forward. "So what are you in for?" she asked, gesturing to the pile of cauldrons and holding her chin in her hand.

"Sleeping in class." I said monotonously, trying not to look up from the crusty red stuff in the bottom of the cauldron and into her eyes.

She made a disinterested, "Ah" noise. She sat and watched me struggling with the same cauldron for a few minutes before saying, "Look, you're not even doing that right. Give it to me."

I gave her a confused look but relinquished my supplies. She made a deep hacking sound in the back of her throat and spit noisily into the cauldron. I moved closer, peering over her shoulder at her pooled saliva in the bottom of the cauldron.

"See? Now if you scrub it…" she started scrubbing. "It comes right out."

She turned her head, thinking I was still farther back. But when she saw that my face was only inches away, she paused and looked down to my mouth then her eyes darted back up to my eyes. "Um…" she said softly. Then she seemed to snap out of it. She set the pot down hastily and handed me the rag. Then she moved to the other side of the table.

I blushed, realizing how close things had gotten just then.

She walked to the door and put her ear up against it. "I think they're gone." she whispered.

She turned, dusting her hands off on each other. "Anyways, thanks for the pep talk." and with that she turned and left the room, the door slamming shut behind her.

"No problem. See you." I said, barely able to get it out before she was gone completely.

I took a long considering look at the bottom of the next cauldron and then spit into it, preparing to scrub until nightfall.


	3. Cinderella Man

KOTI'S POV:

That Weasley boy was funny. Not funny in a "Haha" kind of way (though I had heard that both twins were), but funny in an odd way. Something about him set every alarm in my body off. And that was not something I was used to. I was used to guys drooling over me and I had gotten past being flattered and now I was bored and annoyed by it. I wasn't used to actually _wanting_ that attention from someone.

I made my way back to the common room, flanked by two guys who were currently arguing over who would carry my books. I had them still in my arm and they had been arguing the whole way to the common room, so I didn't see much point in arguing over it.

"Thanks, boys. I'm going up to bed. G'night." I waved vaguely and turned to go upstairs as the two boys watched after me adoringly and then started up a new fight about who I was waving at.

Michelle was already in the room when I entered. "Hey, Miss Popularity." she greeted me with a smile.

I shook my head and grinned. "Boys are so stupid." I muttered, walking to my bed and sitting down.

Michelle was leaned back on her pillows reading some Muggle magazine called "Seventeen".

"I cant believe all those boys are always falling all over themselves trying to get your attention and you don't have any interest in any of them." Michelle said, flipping a page and shaking her head in silently confused wonder.

"It gets very tiresome. And having someone always leaning over your shoulder, always following you, always wanting your opinion on everything… Its also very annoying." I said, gripping the edge of my mattress and trying not to let all the hormone-filled guys get to me.

"I still find it hard to believe that you have all these guys all around you who would die to have your approval and you don't even like one of them."

I looked down at the floor-boards and wrongly assumed she was too engrossed in her magazine to hear me when I said, "Too bad the only one I even kind of think I might like is the one guy at school who isn't paying any kind of attention to me."

She practically jumped 10 feet in the air moving to the edge of the bed. "WHAT? WHO?" she said, her face splitting into a huge smile.

I was startled and I jumped backwards.

"No one. I don't even know his name. He's one of the Weasley twins." I said, blushing ferociously. They had introduced themselves once, but I didn't know which twin had been the one I'd talked to after classes today. Either Fred or George.

"Ooh! Which one?" she asked eagerly.

"I already told you I don't know his name." I said, rolling my eyes. "Besides, I don't know if I even really like him, I just kind of have a small crush on him."

At this, her face fell. "Okay, if you say so." she held her hands up like she was surrendering and then glanced at her watch. "Its almost time for dinner. You ready?"

I nodded and stood up. We walked together to the Great Hall and took a seat.

Seamus was already there, yapping on about something or another and casting occasional glares at any guy within a 5-foot radius of me. Michelle jumped into Seamus's conversation enthusiastically, quickly calling to mind all of her knowledge on the topic.

Feeling a little alone, I looked everywhere. The banners along the wall, down the table, into the bright blue eyes of a near-stranger. He was looking at me, but his head was turned in the direction of a kid who was obviously talking to him. I assumed he must've looked up at precisely the same time as I did and so that was why our gazes had met.

Not realizing what I was doing, I lifted a hand and waved. 'That's not dorky at all, Koti.' I thought sarcastically.

He smiled and it looked like he chuckled a little.

The kid who was talking to him turned around and looked very annoyed that he had been ignored.

Weasley didn't seem to notice, though. There was no one sitting next to me, but I saw a few guys staring at the spot next to me and glaring at each other as if to say, "Race ya!"

I made a "come here" motion with my hand to the Weasley boy. His twin brother was sitting across from him.

I knew this one was the one I had talked with earlier. He had brighter eyes than his twin, but just barely. Only I would have noticed. I was pathetic.

He smiled crookedly and stood from the table. He strode toward me confidently, his head held up. He took a seat beside me, earning him a few glares from surrounding boys (including Seamus).

"Miss Finnigan," he greeted me.

"Mr. Weasley." I smiled.

"And how has your day been?" he asked, linking his fingers together as we waited for dinner to begin.

"Very interesting," I said cryptically.

We were staring intently into each other's eyes, which was made awkward by the fact that everyone at the table had their eyes on us and had gone silent to listen to our conversation. I looked up into several pairs of accusing eyes, one pair of overprotective ones, and another that were very smug. Self-satisfied realization was written all over Michelle's face.

I dropped my head, looking down at the table as if to memorize the pattern of the grains.

Dumbledore decided to say a few words about some random students who had gotten in trouble for something we weren't informed was punishable on our first day. But I didn't pay much attention. I was busy trying to remember which twin was beside me. Was he Fred or George? When Dumbledore's speech was over, we looked down to a table filled with food.

The twin beside me dug in, forgetting everything but his hunger. I ate without really noticing what it was I was putting in my mouth. I could've been eating a live cobra for all I knew.

I looked up into the hard eyes of my big brother. "What?" I mouthed, wondering what it was that was eating him.

He eyed the twin next to me and when his eyes returned to me, he said, "So, Fred, what year are you in now?" Seamus kept his eyes on me as he spoke so it was clear that the answer to his question was what was wrong.

But I was busy being happy that I had finally discovered which twin I was sitting with.

"This will be my 5th year, Seamus, you know that." Fred said, looking up from his food for the first time.

Seamus looked at him then and gave him a bright smile. "That's what I thought. Just wasn't sure."

My heart sunk. 5th year. We were four years apart. My head drooped and I poked a pile of mashed potatoes on my plate with my fork.

When dinner was over, I was surprised I hadn't said anything to Fred the whole time; I had asked him to come over so I could talk to him. But Seamus's interference had hindered my curiosity.

"So it's Fred that you've got a crush on!" Michelle said in a hushed tone as we made our way back to the common room.

"Yeah, I guess so." I said distantly.

When we got back to the common room, we sat on the couch in front of the fire as all the other kids went up to bed. I glared at the floor.

"What's new with your brother?" Michelle asked awkwardly, as if she didn't really want to ask.

"Ruining my life." I groaned.

She laughed a little and said, "That's what big brothers are supposed to do."

I grimaced at her statement.

Catching my scowl, she said, "Hey, Koti? What's the deal? You've been acting mad ever since dinner."

I wanted to tell her, but I knew it wasn't really that important so I expelled thoughts of Fred and said, "Seamus is just getting on my nerves."

She seemed to believe my story and didn't ask anymore questions.

That night, sleep didn't come easy. But when I did fall asleep, I dreamt of short red hair, bright blue eyes, and a disarmingly beautiful smile.


End file.
